LOS ANGELES

LA CARES--The devastating impact of wildfires exploding across swaths of California is captured nightly in dramatic television footage. Largely unseen, though, is how those same fires affect Los Angeles’ growing homeless population, many of whom have abandoned menacing urban streets for the relative safety of woodland encampments. 

SLICING AWAY AT THE SAFETY NET-The Senate’s version of tax reform, 479 pages with last-minute, handwritten changes in the margins, passed shortly before 2 a.m. on December 2, with only one Republican voting against it. The GOP plan is a windfall for the wealthiest Americans, slashing the top corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 percent, and while a final version won’t be unveiled until later this week, the gains for the rich appear to come at the expense of the elderly. 

@THE GUSS REPORT-It is the proverbial loose thread on the free speech sweater. It should not have been pulled, but now that it has, it will undoubtedly cause endless additional aggravation for the Los Angeles City Council (and its committees and commissions) in 2018 and beyond. 

TENANTS’ RIGHTS-That's what City Councilman Mitch O'Farrell and United Way board member Jerry Neuman are permitting as they look the other way while residents are being ordered from their homes in a 1980s apartment tower, seen by thousands of commuters on the 101 freeway. 

CAL MATTERS-When the Legislature reconvenes and the campaigns for governor heat up next year, Californians will be hearing a lot – and a lot of hot air – about universal health care. 

CORRUPTION WATCH- People love lies, myths and feel-good beliefs, but we shun facts. The sooner we recognize that our lives are founded on our emotional attachment to lies and myths, the sooner we can combat their deleterious effects.  

DTLA SKID ROW- Last week, Philip Alston, a United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, visited Skid Row in Downtown Los Angeles as part of a national tour investigating human rights conditions for the poorest U.S. citizens. 

RACISM CUTTING BOTH WAYS-Overall, perceptions of worsening racial relations have been building since the Obama years. And now, with everything from the Kate Steinle murder verdict to President Trump’s dog-whistling Muslim tweets, they seem destined to worsen further. 

CAL MATTERS--California, which had led the nation in cracking down on crime in the 1980s and 1990s by locking up tens of thousands of felons, has dramatically reversed course in the last half-decade, to wit:

PREVEN REPORT--In California, public agencies are required to put major contracts out to bid, so why did the Mayor and City Council of Los Angeles just award a seven-year, sixty-four million dollar contract to Motorola Solutions, Inc. with no request for proposal (RFP)? 

EASTSIDER-Just when I was going to do a column on Neighborhood Councils, the National Democratic Party struck again! I just don’t understand how their politically correct and morally bankrupt pandering is supposed to gain them election victories. 

BILLBOARD BLIGHT-There will be hundreds of new digital billboards all across the city, flashing ad messages that change every eight seconds all day and into the night, if the City Council Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee gets its way. The new draft legislation they unveiled at a Dec. 12 City Hall hearing basically capitulates to the sign companies, generally ignoring traffic safety, aesthetics and environmental concerns. 

BELL VIEW--This morning we woke to news of a miracle in Alabama: a tough-on-crime prosecutor who brought justice to unrepentant terrorists for murdering little girls in a church upset a child molester who was banned from the local mall for hitting on high school girls during his 30’s. Miraculous, eh? Well, for times like these, we’ll take our miracles wherever we can get them.

‘I DON’T WANT TO DIE’-As a veteran teacher of 25 years, I‘ve heard children say a lot of things. But, in 2010 one of my second-grade students said something no teacher should ever hear: “Ms. Lappin, I don’t want to die.” He wasn’t sick. But he was scared. The child’s haunting words impelled me to start asking questions. Specifically, why were so many children, teachers, and residents contracting cancer in the small city of Paramount? 

PLATKIN ON PLANNING-In the fanciful world of high school and college “civics” and political science classes, government is portrayed as a neutral force blindly balancing many competing interest groups. While a few gullible students might fall for this claim, a quick look at the City of Los Angeles puts this notion to rest. 

POLITICS-Does Tuesday’s election of Doug Jones as Alabama’s first Democratic U.S. Senator in more than two decades signal the beginning of the end for Donald Trump? Have enough voters who embraced Trump’s anti-Washington rhetoric finally awakened from the fevered dream of draining the swamp? Or was the defeat of Roy Moore an electoral aberration? 

CORRUPTION WATCH-All educated people have heard Lord Acton’s quote from 1887, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” One interesting aspect of Lord Acton’s statement is that it took thousands of years for someone to concisely state what everyone knew. It’s the lesson behind Sodom and Gomorrah where the judges were named Liar, Deceiver, and Perverter of the law. Socrates’, Plato’s and Aristotle’s discussions on how to bring together wisdom and power yielded no solution. As the Arab political philosopher al-Farabi noted in his parable of the pious ascetic, the corruption power brings taints even the righteous. (The ascetic had to lie by acts of deception to save his life.) 

SMALL BIZ WATCH--As sexual harassment allegations spread to more individuals and industries, the sad facts are coming out regarding treatment of women at work that many have known about for decades. It’s easy to point to more “glamorous” enterprises like entertainment, investment, culinary, tech, politics, fashion, and think that these “ego-head” movers and shakers are getting their due. In the days to come #MeToo will certainly spread to less glamorous industries and less prominent transgressors, and many industries and localities will have unfortunate and distressing sexual harassment accounts to deal with. 

PREVEN REPORT-How is charging admission to a public museum not the same thing as charging admission to a public library? 

PERSPECTIVE--Remember being taught about the Boston Tea Party? The patriots of Boston finally had enough taxation without representation. Well folks, get your tea bags out and ready. 

GELFAND’S WORLD--The pharmaceutical industry sued the state of California on Friday. You see, California recently passed a law that would require the drug companies to give advance warning before they raise prices substantially. Under California's new law, drug companies are at least supposed to provide some advance notice and to explain their reasons. So as night follows day, the pharmaceutical industry filed suit, wrapping themselves in the Constitution and various other sacred obligations.